


it's not the fall, but landing (that will alter social standing)

by el_em_en_oh_pee



Series: tumblr "drabbles" [5]
Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-19
Updated: 2016-07-19
Packaged: 2018-07-25 12:32:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7532923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/el_em_en_oh_pee/pseuds/el_em_en_oh_pee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Oh, that? That's Greg's kid brother. His name is Niall too."</p>
            </blockquote>





	it's not the fall, but landing (that will alter social standing)

**Author's Note:**

> originally for the prompt "The only prompt I will ever care about its someone famous falling in life with a regularly person"
> 
> crossposting tumblr drabbles yadda yadda

Bressie gets home on a dreary Saturday. The cold, driving rain fits his mood - tour was long, and arduous, especially after Anthony’s girlfriend broke up with him several weeks before the end. Really all he wants is to catch up with friends over a pint and sleep for a week. Honestly - they have their show in December coming up, but Bressie isn’t that convinced that the band is going to be doing another album anytime soon.

Oh well. He’s due for a breather, anyway. 

He takes out his phone and texts the old crowd - Greg, Liam, Finn, Cynan, and them - just a simple whats the craic? and settles down on his couch, kicking off his shoes and turning on the telly.

—

The weather doesn’t improve, but being around friends does a world of good for Bressie’s mood. He’s out with most of the Mullingar crowd on a Wednesday afternoon, kicking a football around in a park, when one of Finn’s kicks sends the ball across the carpark and he hears a young voice call out, “I’ve got it!”

A rambunctious blond boy leaps into Bressie’s field of vision and belly-flops onto the ball. He stands up, triumphantly, ball in his arms, and starts to jog across the street. Out of the corner of his eye, Bressie can see Greg make a face.

“Who’s that?” he whispers at Liam, who is close enough to hear him well enough.

“Oh, that?” Liam says, rolling his eyes a little. “That’s Greg’s kid brother. His name is Niall, too.”

Greg’s kid brother Niall is awfully cute. “How old is he?”

Liam gives Bressie a knowing look. “He’ll be sixteen next year.”

So young. “Cheers,” Bressie tells Niall, when he brings the ball over, and even though Greg is giving him the dirtiest of dirty looks, he asks, “Want to join us?”

“Yeah, thanks!” Niall says. He’s got big eyes, excited. He clearly knows who Bressie is - obviously; he’s Greg’s kid brother - but he’s not saying anything, just grinning and setting the ball down, kicking it hard toward Cynan.

Down, boy, Bressie tells himself, and he wipes his forehead off with the back of his sleeve and jogs toward the ball.

—

He shouldn’t. He really, really shouldn’t.

He walks over to Greg’s house on a day when he knows Greg is at work, anyway.

Bobby’s out as well, but Niall answers the door, dressed only in plaid pyjama bottoms and a dingy vest top. “Hey,” he says, grinning as he opens the door. “Greg’s not here.”

“Oh,” Bressie says, trying to act surprised. “I thought he’d be off work by now.”

“Nah, not till six,” Niall says. He pauses, then says, “You can still come in if you want to wait. I’m only playing Call of Duty.”

Bressie hates Call of Duty. “I love Call of Duty,” he says, letting himself inside. 

—

Niall, as he learns, loves singing and wants to be a star himself. “I supported Lloyd Daniels earlier this year,” he says, scratching his stomach and then adjusting himself in his bottoms, not at all shyly. “Think I’ll go for the next season of the X Factor.”

He asks Bressie all about the Blizzards, what touring is like, what it’s like to make music for a living.

Bressie doesn’t tell him about how fucking exhausting this last tour has been. “Want to see us in December?” he asks, instead. “I’ve got extra tickets to our show at the Olympia.”

“Those have been sold out for ages, though,” Niall says, eyes wide. “I’ve checked.

"They’re yours,” Bressie says. “Get Greggo to take you, if you want. Or you could bring a girlfriend.”

“No girlfriend,” Niall says, smiling up at Bressie. He’s got this knowing little glint in his eyes.

He’s fifteen, Bressie reminds himself. He wanks himself raw that night, very carefully thinking of absolutely nothing to do with bleached-blond hair on loud, charismatic boys. 

—

Eventually, Bressie manages to trick himself into forgetting how much he genuinely likes Niall. He’s set to head back to London immediately after his Dublin show - if he can hold out that long, he’ll be home free. 

For weeks, he’s careful not to go over to Greg’s unless Greg is actually there, or go for a kickabout in the park unless he’s with another friend, as well. He doesn’t want to be rude, but he also - well. Niall is fifteen. Fifteen. Well, sixteen now, but still. Bressie just turned 29. 

It’s not like he can’t tell that Niall has a crush on him, too - Niall always shows off a little more, with sport and with singing and generally having a laugh when Bressie is around, even Finn has said so - it just. It wouldn’t be appropriate on any level.

He still gives Niall backstage passes.

Niall tries to kiss him after the show, and Bressie lets himself kiss back for all of ten seconds before he physically throws himself back. “You’re sixteen,” he tells Niall, dumbly.

“You’re hot,” Niall says, smiling cheekily, but Bressie just shakes his head. 

“Maybe in two years,” he says. Niall probably won’t even remember him in two years.

“I’ll hold you to that,” is all Niall says.

—

Bressie goes to every single one of Niall’s X Factor performances that he can. Niall doesn’t say anything, but Bressie’s name is always on the list.

He hears from Greg that Niall is moving to London with the other boys in his band for good when Greg texts him to ask him to look out for his kid brother. Cringing, Bressie promises to - even sents Maura and Bobby messages promising to do the same.

The first time he and Niall hang out, Niall doesn’t say a word about their history, and Bressie is - no. Not sad. Not bummed. Grateful. He really, really is.

His heart just twinges a bit, is all. 

—

Niall’s eighteenth birthday is a loud affair. “No more getting me and Lou to buy you all your beer, you wanker,” Bressie jokes, when he arrives.

Niall just grins at him. “Thanks for coming, mate, glad you could make it,” he says, and he pulls Bressie in for a hug. 

When Bressie has been tugged down to Niall’s height, hugging him tight, Niall whispers, “Hey, Brez - I’m eighteen now.”

Bressie gulps, and stares at him. Niall winks back. Bressie’s not even drunk yet, when Niall pulls him into the loo and locks the door behind the two of them.

**Author's Note:**

> [original work](http://dulosis.tumblr.com/post/67205163591/the-only-prompt-i-will-ever-care-about-its-someone)


End file.
